This Military Service Page was created/owned by
1LT Theodore Jensen
to remember
Jensen, Joseph Blaine, Pvt.
If you knew or served with this Soldier and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Brigham City, Utah
Last Address 2916 35th Street Sacramento, California
Date of Passing Aug 25, 1960
Location of Interment Newburg Cemetery - Fortuna, California
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Biographical note: After severe attacks with mustard gas, Blaine suffered chronic stomach problems the rest of his life.
MEMORIAL PAGE
For the Squad mates of Pvt. Joseph Blaine Jensen, Battery C, 146th Field Artillery Battalion, 66th Field Artillery Brigade, 41st Infantry Division, A.E.F., U.S. Army
WORLD WAR ONE
Blaine Jensen’s Army records were destroyed in an Archives fire in 1973, So I can find no official record of what medals or ribbons he earned, Probably also destroyed were the records of his squad mates of Battery C. Idaho national guard record shows him as fighting in 4 major battles, so deserves Victory medal with 4 bars. Maybe medal for Mexican campaign and Purple heart. French general sent unit commendation letter to his CO after batle of St. Mihiel, so maybe should have some French medal.
On his death, Blaine left behind His war diary, the two French texts he used to teach himself French, and numerous photos from the war, including several of unidentified squad mates of his from C Battery during their battles across France and into Germany between 1918-1919.
Those have all been donated to the World War One Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. However I have copies of all the photos and his war diary pages, and would like to find living members of his squad mates’ families who might want them.
One document was not destroyed by the fire, the final pay voucher of the men of Battery C from June 26, 1919, the day they were released from the Army because of the end of the war. It lists all their names and dates and places of their enlistments.
If anyone seeing this memorial has clues as to where their families are today, please email me at profetedjensen14@gmail.com or phone at 406-534-6019 so I can send the photos or more to their family members. I would also appreciate if if his famoly could send photo of a squad mate's ribbons if they have one, to help me see what medals Blaine should have had.
Blaine’s son and Vietmam vet Theodore W. Jensen Jan 2016
Battery C, 146th Field Artillery. 66th Field Artillery Brigade, 41st Division, A.E.F..
John G. Harem Enlisted 1917 in Terrry, Montana b. 27 June 1890 in Norway, d. 3 May, 1961 Dewitt Hasbrouck Enlisted 29 Mar 1914 in Nampa, Idaho, d. 26 Apr 1981 Clarence O. Harbert Enlisted 26 July 1917 in Denver, Colorado b. 29 Oct 1893 Bryan A. Huff Enlisted 2 Jun 1915 in Sand Point, Idaho. d. 18 Aug 1972 Lee W. Johnson Enlisted18 Apr 1917 in Sand Point, Idaho Earl D. Johnson d. 24 July 1958 Enlisted 28 May 1917 in Boise, Idaho Joseph Blaine Jensen Enlisted 19 Jun 1916 in Twin Falls, Idaho. b. 7 Apr 1897 in Brigham City, Utah.
May have fought and been shot in abdomen as an Idaho guard infantryman In Pershing Mexican Campaign. Served as Battery C’s liaison and French Interpreter and commander of 30 Americans with French Battery of 240 mm guns. for several weeks. Came home with chronic stomach pain from mustard gas. d. 25 Aug 1960 in Sacramento, CA bur. in Newburg Cemetery, Fortuna, Humboldt County, CA.
Aften W. Kidd Enlisted 17 Sept 1917 in Twin Falls, Idaho Fought as Sgt. in WW II also. d. 1983 in LA County, CA ,l buried Westminster Memorial Park Cemetery in Westminster, Orange County, CA. Ray R. Liddiard Enlisted 5 Jun 1917 in Boise, Idaho, d 1972 Severin D. Larsen Enlisted 1 Nov 1917 in Garfield, Utah . b Apr 1889 in Hunter, Utah. d 16 Sept 1950 in Hunter, Salt Lake Co, Utah, died in VA Hospital. Never married. No family. bur. Elysian Burial Gardens, Mill Creek, SL Col Utah .
Other Comments:
The families of the following squad mates of Joseph Blaine Jensen have been found and photos and other info provided as of 2016:
Dewitt Hasbrouck
Earl D Johnson
World War I/Meuse-Argonne Campaign
From Month/Year
September / 1918
To Month/Year
November / 1918
Description Meuse-Argonne, 26 September - 11 November 1918. At the end of August Marshal Foch had submitted plane to the national commanders for a final offensive along the entire Western Front, with the objective of driving the enemy out of France before winter and ending the war in the spring of 1919. The basis for his optimism was the success of Allied attacks all along the front in August. Furthermore, he pointed out, the Allies already had active operations in progress between the Moselle and Meuse, the Oise and Aisne, and on the Somme and Lys Rivers. Foch acknowledged that the Germans could stave off immediate defeat by an orderly evacuation combined with destruction of materiel and communications. Therefore the overall aim of the fall offensive would be to prevent a step-by-step enemy retirement. As Foch anticipated, the Germans eventually contributed to the success of his strategy. Their High Command could not bring itself to sacrifice the huge stores collected behind the front lines, and so delayed the withdrawal of its armies.
Foch's great offensive, planned to begin in the last week of September, called for a gigantic pincers movement with the objective of capturing Aulnoye and Mézières, the two key junctions in the lateral rail system behind the German front. Lose of either of these junctions would hamper seriously the German withdrawal. Despite grumbling from the English that they lacked the necessary manpower, a chiefly British army was assigned the teak of driving toward Aulnoye. The A.E.F. was designated for the southern arm of the pincers, the thrust on Mézières. Simultaneously the Belgian-French-British army group in Flanders would drive toward Ghent, and the French armies in the Oise-Aisne region would exert pressure all along their front to lend support to the pincers attack.
Pershing decided to strike his heaviest blow in a zone about 20 miles wide between the Heights of the Meuse on the east and the western edge of the high, rough, and densely wooded Argonne Forest. This is difficult terrain, broken by a central north-south ridge that dominates the valleys of the Meuse and Aire Rivers. Three heavily fortified places-Montfaucon, Cunel, and Barricourt-as well as numerous strong points barred the way to penetration of the elaborate German defenses in depth that extended behind the entire front. This fortified system consisted of three main defense lines backed up by a fourth line less well-constructed. Pershing hoped to launch an attack with enough momentum to drive through these lines into the open area beyond, where his troops could then strike at the exposed German flanks and, in a coordinated drive with the French Fourth Army coming up on the left, could cut the Sedan- Mézières railroad.
The task of assembling troops in the concentration area between Verdun and the Argonne was complicated by the fact that many American unite were currently engaged in the St. Mihiel battle. Some 600,000 Americans had to be moved into the Argonne sector while 220,000 French moved out. Responsibility for solving this tricky logistical problem fell to Col. George C. Marshall, Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3 (Operations), First Army. In the ten-day period after St. Mihiel the necessary troop movements were accomplished, but many untried divisions had to be placed in the vanguard of the attacking forces.
On the 20-mile Meuse-Argonne front where the main American attack w to be made, Pershing disposed three corps side by side, each with three divisions in line and one in corps reserve. In the center was the V Corps (from right to left the 79th, 37th, and 91st Divisions with the 32d in reserve), which would strike the decisive blow. On the right was the III Corps (from right to left the 33d, 80th, and 4th Divisions with the 3d in reserve), which would move up the west aide of the Meuse. On the left was the I Corps (from right to left the 35th, 28th, and 77th Divisions with the 92d in reserve), which would advance parallel to the French Fourth Army on its left. Eastward across the Meuse the American front extended in direct line some 60 miles; this sector was held by two French Corps (IV and II Colonial) and the American IV Corps in the St. Mihiel sector. Pershing had available to support his offensive nearly 4000 guns, two-thirds manned by American artillerymen; 190 light French tanks, mostly with American personnel; and some 820 aircraft, 600 of them flown by Americans.
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive falls into three phases. During the initial phase (26 September-3-October) the First Army advanced through most of the southern Meuse-Argonne region, captured enemy strong points, seized the first two German defense lines, and then stalled before the third line. Failure of tank support, a difficult supply situation, and the inexperience of American troops all contributed to checking its advance.
In the second phase (4-31 October) the First Army, after the inexperienced divisions had been replaced by veteran units, slowly ground its way through the third German line. The enemy was forced to throw in reserves, drawn from other parts of the front, thus aiding the Allied advances elsewhere. In the face of a stubborn defense, American gains were limited and casualties were severe, especially as a result of the newly devised enemy tactic of attacking frontline troops with airplanes. First Army air unite retaliated with bombing raids which broke up German preparations for counterattacks. By the end of October the enemy had been cleared from the Argonne and First Army troops were through the German main positions. Two notable incidents of this phase of the campaign were the fight of the "Lost Battalion" of the 77th Division (2-7 October), and the feat of Corp. (later Sgt.) Alvin C. York, who single-handedly killed 15 Germans and captured 132 on 8 October.
In mid-October the organization of the Second Army was completed, at Toul in the St. Mihiel sector, to provide means for better control of the lengthening American front and solutions of the diverse tactical problems that it presented. Pershing assumed command of the new army group thus formed.
Before the third and final phase (1-11 November) of the offensive got under way, many of the exhausted divisions of the First Army were replaced, roads were built or repaired, supply was improved, and most Allied units serving with the A.E.F. were withdrawn. On 1 November First Army units began the assault of the now strengthened German fourth line of defense. Penetration was rapid and spectacular. The V Corps in the center advanced about six miles the first day, compelling the German units west of the Meuse to withdraw hurriedly. On 4 November the III Corps forced a crossing of the Meuse and advanced northeast toward Montmédy. Elements of the V Corps occupied the heights opposite Sedan on 7 November, thus finally accomplishing the First Army's chief mission-denial of the Sedan- Mézières railroad to the Germans. Marshal Foch, at this juncture, shifted the First Army left boundary eastward so that the French Fourth Army might capture Sedan, which had fallen to the Prussians in 1870. American units were closing up along the Mouse and, east of the river, were advancing toward Montmédy, Briny, and Metz, when hostilities ended on 11 November.
General Pershing authorized the results of the Meuse-Argonne Campaign, the greatest battle in American history up to that time, in his Final Report: "Between September 26 and November 11, 22 American and 4 French divisions, on the front extending from southeast of Verdun to the Argonne Forest, had engaged and decisively beaten 47 different German divisions, representing 25 percent of the enemy's entire divisional strength on the western front.
The First Army suffered a loss of about 117,000 in killed and wounded. It captured 26,000 prisoners, 847 cannon, 3,000 machineguns, and large quantities of material." More than 1,200,000 Americans had taken part in the 47-day campaign.
